The following abstracts of Utah Special Educator articles are offered for those practitioners wishing to focus on issues of standardized assessment, particularly using the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability and Tests of Achievement. This effort is part of an ongoing series of articles on the diagnosis, assessment and treatment (intervention) of learning problems in school age children and youth. To access the full text of any article, click on the italicized article name below. All articles are presented in PDF format, and may be downloaded, saved, printed and disseminated for educational purposes.
Angell & Hill. Assessments in Reading: Hitting the Classroom Running. (2004 May). 24(06). P. 18
Willis & Krebs. Ongoing Literacy Assessment in Cache County School District: Using DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). (2004 April). 24(05). P. 20
Gallegos, Elena. What Works for Students in Assessment. (2004 April). 24(05). P. 17
Hawken, Leanne S. Using DIBELS to Improve Reading Outcomes. (2004 February). 24(04). P. 22
Burke, Ryan. Going Deep: The WJIII and Cross-Battery Assessment. (2003 December). 24(03). p. 40
Christiansen, Farley, Olympia, Jenson. Suggestions for Assessing Emotional Disturbance and Behavioral Disorders. (2003 Nevember). 24(02). P.36
Hosp & Hosp. Progress Monitoring: An Essential Factor For Student Success. (2003 November). 24(02). P.26
Spencer, Amy. Assessing All Students: Utah's Alternate Assessment. (2003 November). 24(02). P.38
Harrington, Patty. Learning Health Checkups: Using Assessment to Accurately Diagnose Student Abilities. (2003 September). 24(01). P.12
Alvarado, Criselda Guajardo. The Basic Framework for a Bilingual Psycho-Education Evaluation. (2003 Spring). 23(05). P.44
Herbert, Michael. Truth, Lies and Testing . . . (2003 Spring). 23(05). P.50
Manuel-Dupont, S. Assessing English Language Learners. (2003 Spring) 23(05). P.22
Prasad, Steve. Psychoeducational Assessment of Students Who are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse: A Plan Etched In Granite. (2003 Spring). 23(05). P.47
Herbert, Michael. How To Make a Million Dollars Teaching In Utah. (2001 September). 22(01). p. 27
This article presents the rationale of diagnosis and assessment of learning problems of children and youth in schools. An introduction to a new standardized tool: the WJ III is presented, with an overview of new constructs, clusters and subtests provided.
Herbert, Michael. Teacher As Enemy?. (2001 November). 22(02). p. 28
This article presents a legal/moral/ethical framework for standardized assessment and upgrading one’s assessment skills. Guidelines are presented for maximizing test administration time by selecting an appropriate combination of subtests to answer the referral question. A brief discussion of selective testing to meet IDEA 97 mandates for re-evaluation is included.
Herbert, Michael. There Are No Facts, Only Interpretations. (2001 December). 22(03). p. 27
This article provides a brief description of commonly generated scores from the WJ III, and a rationale for choosing or selecting scores for different diagnostic, comparitive and descriptive purposes. The focus of the discussion is on understanding test scores and in explaining scores to parents and other partners.
Herbert, Michael. Assessment: Do It Right Or Don’t Do It At All. (2002 February). 22(04). p. 25
Standardized assessment requires exact administration and scoring procedures if the results are to have validity and be value for describing and/or predicting performance. The author presents his “Top 10 list” of observed and reported administration and scoring errors encountered with the WJ III.
Herbert, Michael. Behavioral Assessment: What’s Wrong With This Picture? (2002 April). 22(05). p. 25 This article purports the link between cognitive deficits (as identified by the WJ III Cognitive Tests) and behavioral problems in school age children and youth. Suggestions for using the WJ III Cognitive results in reducing or proactively eliminating typical behavior problems are offered.
Herbert, Michael. Reasonable Accommodations…Or A Lifetime Of Entitlement?. (2002 May). 22(06). p. 24 This article explores the question of when accommodations to access the general curriculum are required, and when accommodations may actually harm students. The author presents the concept of “only as special as necessary”, and provides a procedure for using the WJ III test results to determine which accommodations should be considered and why.